Notice
by playing-devils-advocate
Summary: Noticing gave him life. Noticing gave him death. Was it all worth it? Maybe he shouldn't notice anyone, anymore.
1. Chapter 1

Dom was the first to notice her, again. He had noticed that she was there every night for the last month. She stayed in the background. Usually sitting on top of someone else's car, watching, studying, assessing, whatever the hell she was doing. His first thought had been she was a cop, his mindset still focused on Brian's betrayal. And yet somehow, he knew she wasn't, it was like something inside him rebelled at the idea of her being a cop, the one thing he hated most. He refused to believe she was, no, he knew she wasn't. Besides she had this innocent element about her that he just couldn't match with a cop.

And there she was again. She appeared the picture of relaxed, reclining on the hood of someone's car. As she lay there, stretched out, there was no way Dom couldn't look her over, study her. She had on a pair of low riding black skinny jeans tucked into high heeled black boots, and she looked good. She was slim and small, compact Dom thought, as he continued looking. She wore a black vest that would usually go over another top to dress it up, but she just wore the vest, and taking her in, she looked good, really good. Her skin was pale, so it looked good against the black clothes and her long, black and naturally curled hair. Definitely not a cop, Dom thought, cops are never that fine.

"Dom!"

A recognizable shout cut through his thoughts, stare and concentration. He shook his head once before he turned to the newest addition to their team, Kay. She was the youngest in their team, so they all felt they should look out her. But it was Dom who looked after her the most, since Mia wasn't around; Kay seemed to fill up his big brother quota. He saw her run through the crowd to him, her short and dead straight brown hair bouncing. She wore cargo pants, with a shrunken army green tank top, Kay was small as well, but not in the same way as that mysterious girl. Kay was pretty darn strong, she packed a hell of a punch when she wanted to, because her big brother Leon wanted her to know how. The other girl had looked delicate, almost pathetically weak. Kay at least had some hard and defined muscles that all the boys were proud of.

"Kay" He replied as she stood in front of him, "You okay?"

She waved his question away, having so much practice, and Dom smirked at her.

"Jesse wants ya" She said, and then paused as Dom studied her light green eyes, curious as the rest of the team were about the two of them. Everyone could see how good they were for each other. Kay was calm, always, able to sit for hours in one place, but Jesse had his ADD and couldn't sit in one place, at all, ever. In that way they were exactly the opposite, complements of each other, yet Kay was probably the only person Dom knew, which were quite a few people that could keep up with Jesse. She too was unbelievably smart, and the two would spend hours talking, or designing software that the rest of the team could not understand.

She rolled her eyes at Dom. "Hurry ya ass up Dom!"

She frowned as he grinned slowly, evil. Before Kay could react she was over his shoulder, hanging there as if weightless and knowing there was nothing she could do about it. So she didn't bother and just burst out laughing when Dom hit her ass playfully. She smiled to herself, thankful Dom was okay, and playful, glad he hadn't turned into a miserable grouch with all the crap he had thrown at him. So for his benefit, she told herself, she could put up with being embarrassed.

Dom made it over to where Jesse and Vince and Leon were, standing around Leon's yellow skyline.

"What's up boys?" Dom asked as he swung Kay down to the ground. Jesse pulled his head out from under the engine to grin at Kay, who poked her tongue out and walked off, intending to talk with her own friends, and hoping to find Bree.

Leon rolled his eyes at the pair, knowing Jesse or Kay would make a move, sooner or later. He turned to find Dom waiting, so he got straight to it.

"My skyline is acting up, Jesse had to take a look, and apparently someone has been messing with it" Leon was serious at the end and it made Dom stop for a second, a tad shocked.

"Someone is messing with you skyline?" Dom asked incredulous, and when Leon nodded, Dom's face shut down, his stare blank. "Nobody touches our cars. Nobody sabotages this team. Who the hell is stupid enough to do that?"

There were serious looks all round. Nobody had a clue. Dom scanned the crowds in the alley, thinking hard about any enemies, and he caught sight of the mysterious girl again. She had just popped out from under the hood of someone's car, Dom couldn't work out whom, but he was familiar. She was shaking her head at the man who had his back to Dom, and taking, obviously telling him something he didn't want to hear because he started shaking his own head and stiffened up. Apparently this frustrated the girl, who started talking more forcefully, her arms waving about her as she clearly tried to explain something to the man he didn't like. He started waving his arms back at her, and Dom could hear they were yelling now, even as far away as he was, he could distantly hear them. Curious and needing to think, Dom wandered over. The closer he got, the more his smirk grew.

"You are a pathetic excuse for a car racer! No! You're a pathetic excuse for a man!" Her arms were flying about and the man looked furious, his body taught with tension, clearly not liking this girl telling him anything, "You clearly don't know anything about your car! and you're not taking care of it! you don't deserve it!"

Dom's eyebrow lifted, thinking this girl may have gone to far to talk to a man like that, and wondering if he needed to step in to help her if things turned ugly, wanting to step in.

"Who the hell do you think you are, that you can just come in here and tell me how to look after my car?" This man was shouting back at her, clearly had enough of her attitude.

She stepped right into him, close to his face, not the least bit afraid of him, or so it would seem and she said, serious and arrogantly, "My name is Charlotte-Rae and I am the best god-damn racer and mechanic in New York. Who the hell are you?" She looked down at him, even though she stood at a small 5 foot 5, she seemed to degrade him with her look, and Dom nearly took a step back. This girl had some serious attitude.

The man she had spoken to shifted and Dom recognized what he was about to do.

Dom moved forward and grabbed the hand this man had lifted to hit Charlotte-Rae, and held on, tight. Not realising the attention he had also grabbed along with the hand, Dom looked the man right in his eyes, using his all his power, through racing and body to threaten this man.

"And hitting a girl, is even more pathetic. You lift one hand to any girl, and that will be the last thing you lift, understand?"

The man spluttered and tried to get free, but Dom refused to let go.

"Understand?" With his voice as deadly as it was, what was there to do than answer 'I do understand!'. And that's exactly what this man did, before Dom let him go and he ran away.

Shaking his head and ignoring the crowd which had began to disperse, whispering of course, Dom turned, walked to steps and stopped. Suddenly his mysterious girl, Charlotte-Rae was in front of him. Her expression wasn't too thrilled.

"Did I look like I needed help?" Dom was a bit taken aback.

"Well-"

"No" she interrupted him, forceful and staring him straight in the eyes, "I don't need help, I dont' need _your_ help. I am no damsel, so back off. Not everybody needs saving."

With that she turned and flounced away. Dom just stood there. He was just a little bit fascinated by this creature, but also annoyed, because nobody had ever walked over him like that. It went against him, and he knew that no matter how much he wanted to get to know her, he was going to have to lay down the rules of who was in charge.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlotte stalked off, cooling her rage by focussing in on the cars. But his attitude! Thinking just because she's a woman, admittedly a pretty small one, but a woman nonetheless that she needed someone to protect her. Charlie took a deep, sharp aggravated breath and threw herself onto another random car bonnet, closing her eyes. She hadn't needed protection since she was six. What gave him the right? She could handle herself perfectly fine, and anyone who tried to push her.

Of course, she knew who he was, why he acted like that. Dominic Toretto, King of the L.A streets. His strength, racing and loyalty had even reached her New York raised ears. It was his loyalty that got to her the most. Everyone knew you didn't mess with King Toretto's chosen friends, he would kill for them, and he had killed for them. The face of Jesse popped into her mind. She forced it out with a shake of her head, and wondered why he would stand up for her. She wasn't a part of his chosen royalty. Maybe he just liked playing the knight for girls. She knew what she looked like; she knew exactly how hot the opposite sex found her, hell she used that most of the time, because where she had lived, everybody responded to a hot girl better than an intelligent one. She also knew that if he ever tried to get into her pants she would take him down, crown and all. She smirked. Taking down Dominic Toretto and his team would be a challenge, and she hadn't had a challenge like that in a while. This vacation might be fun after all.

Four distinct engines ripped through the partying that had been going on around her, and she glanced around. Rolling her eyes at the people who stood before her, blocking her view even on the bonnet, she jumped onto the roof of the car and stood. Now she had the perfect view. She saw the four cars at the starting line, engines revving to go. She smirked, knowing the quality of her engine was better, her baby purred.

Charlotte scanned the area, trying to find out who would be the most helpful to know around here, someone who knew everyone. The obvious choice was Toretto, but Charlie knew, for the time being at least, she had to lie low. Set herself up before wrecking havoc on the L.A racing scene. She grinned as her eyes landed on a medium built Latino. She heard the volume increase exponentially and knew the cars had started the race. She wasn't too fussed; she wasn't racing so why bother paying attention. This Latino had a small crowd around him; they looked pretty chummy so she guessed it was his usual crowd.

Her mind worked furiously, fading from the immediate world. How was she supposed to get close enough to this man to find out what she needed? She could try the angle she always told her girls to work in New York, but she really wasn't in the mood to play mindless-slut tonight. Maybe she could just go straight for the jugular, lay it out and hope-to-hell he appreciates honesty. Or she could work his crowd, which would be easy.

Sighing she ran her hands through her hair as it tumbled down her back. Charlie was stuck. For the first time in a very long time, she didn't know what to do. And she hated that feeling. Someone had once told her she had control issues.

'No shit Sherlock' had been her answer. Did he really need a degree in whatever to figure that one out?

Concentrating once more on the alley, she saw the race had finished. Crowding around the red car, were obvious flunkies wanting to get with tonight's winner. Out stepped Dominic Toretto and Charlotte didn't even blink in surprise. His unbeatable record had also reached her ears, and sparked her usually dormant competitive side. A Latino girl stepped up Dominic, her presence seeming to make people more for her. Charlie took in her no-shit posture and two seconds later the adoring flunkies moved away from Dominic. 'Ah' Charlie thought, 'that would be the on-again-off-again childhood sweetie Letty'. She had also been filled in on each of Dominic's little royal gang, by her way to involved friend, and apparently, Letty and Dom were now forever off, and it was for his sister's sake that Letty kept the girls away. She smirked as Letty walked past Dom, giving him the cold shoulder. She liked this girl already.

Finally, she decided enough was enough. Jumping down from the car she had taken over, she started back through the crowd towards her own baby. As she neared she could see someone leaning against her car. Her first thought was to leave tread marks in this person's face for even thinking about touching her car. Her second thought was, 'Oh shit!' as she saw who it was. An unwelcome non-friend who she needed to avoid. Without breaking stride she swung around, and heard the first shout in the distance behind her.

"O'Connor"

'Oh please' she thought sarcastically, 'try to be louder next time'. Unfortunately, she got her wish.

"O'Connor"

'Shut up. Shut up. Shut up' She chanted as she took off. Desperately trying to lose him.

She moved fast, as she had down many times before. She had come up with a plan to lose him when she stepped straight into the line of Dominic Toretto.

She grimaced, and deadpanned, "Joy"

He smirked at her, arms folded, looking hot, but too arrogant for her taste. "We never did finish our conversation"

She feigned innocence, "Really"

"O'Connor!"

Dom stiffened, and Charlotte was fed up.

"O'Connor!"

"WHAT?" She spun around, livid. And Dom was shocked still. His mind worked furiously, to think it through, as she worked furiously to stay in one place.

'She's an O'Connor' was the only thing running through his mind, over and over again. He couldn't think straight.

Charlotte was facing off with a medium built black man, who looked very much like a thug. Dressed in those baggy jeans with his boxers showing, a simple black shirt and a bandana around his head, he looked almost comical, but his face wasn't, and his size wasn't. Charlie probably should have been scared, but she knew who he was, what he was capable off, so she couldn't be, even when his face promised her pain.

"You know '_what?_' girl" He spat, "you knew this was coming."

His voice was strong, his face lighting up at giving her this news, but Charlie shut her face down, letting nothing show on her face, using that as her primary defence.

"What are on about 'Rome'?" She mocked his name, and he gritted his teeth as she knew very well that only his homeboys were allowed to call him Rome.

His face showed how much he wanted to hit her, and she really wanted him to try, knowing she could take him. She was fuelled by ruthlessness, viciousness and evil. But his next words stopped that, his next words stopped everything.

"He wants you back."

She didn't move. She shut down, not moving one inch, frozen.

"What?"

"He said that he wants his 'little kitten' back, his Rae. The Rae that made legends in New York. He wasn't too happy when you left, you know."

Rome walked around her now, enjoying her pain, her suffering, her panic, and her fear.

"But he let you go, because, well, you know what was going down. But now he wants you back baby. And don't even think about running, you know you can't get away"

His words tore Charlie up, fear seizing her, but she responded still, almost automatically.

"I managed to escape last time, and you couldn't find me until now. You know I can do it again." She made her voice be calm, ice cold, and hoped he couldn't see through it. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas, a creepy evil kid, as his grin stretched wide. Charlie shifted, already in flight mode, full of fear, and needing to get out of this situation, but she knew that she would take him on, on her terms. But right now she was captive.

"You only escaped because he let you. He'll explain all that when you see him again, and trust me, it's a good explanation. For a psychotic person. But hey! I'm just the postage guy. Pick up and deliver, baby."

Suddenly Charlie knew she had to get away. Her mind worked through every possible escape route as she tried to keep him talking.

"Since when are you his lapdog? Last I heard you were moving up in the good old gang war of drugs, crime, sex and alcohol?" Charlie managed to put the right amount of pity, sarcasm, and degrading tone to her voice that she knew he would respond to, so she could keep thinking.

"Well sweetheart, it has been a while. And there is only one man in charge down there now, no rivals, nothing. And he wants his baby back. I'm doing the thing he wants done most, what does that tell you?"

"You're all idiots?"

He mock frowned at her, still circling her. "Now now, play nicely or Rome's going to make this journey pretty uncomfortable for you. Okay darling?"

"Aw Rome. You are going to be awfully lonely on that uncomfortable trip" Charlie went with her sweet and innocent act.

"I know you ain't dumb girl, but I'm gunna have to lay this one down for you. You are coming with me, no matter what. So I'm going to tie you up and drag you all the way back to New York if I have to. Understand?" He stood in front of her now, his face too close to hers and she wanted nothing more than to punch him.

"Now Rome. I know you are dumb, so I'm going to have to say this slowly for you. No matter what, I am not coming with you. And there is no way you are going to make me, so just...run along." She made shooing motion with her hand, and watched Rome get serious. He pushed himself closer to her, trying to intimidate her, but she had been on the streets, she had dealt with Rome before, and beat him, so it didn't work.

His face was an inch from hers as he spat out. "He wants you back. And he is going to get you. He owns you. You are his."

Charlotte was seething and wanted nothing more than to sock this sucker. So she did. She shifted left and then threw her whole body and right hooked him across the face. He dropped to the ground, and she shook her hand.

"I'm nobody's object. None owns me. Go back to your little master Rome. Before I put you in the hospital. You know what I'm capable of Rome, I think you just forgot. So did your little 'master'. Remember, I learnt from the best."

Rome pulled himself up to lean on his arms as he coughed out so blood, "You know he won't ever stop looking for you. He'll find you, even if he has to kill you. He loves you and he is never going to give up."

"And that's what you are for Rome. You are the one that gets to tell him to leave me alone. Because remember, I know more about his little 'operation' than anyone. Why don't you all get out of your little gangsta fantasy world and realise how much power I really do have, how good I am."

She started to walk away, feeling a little triumphant, but still full of fear when Rome shouted to her.

"He's going to make you scream" Rome's voice held the triumphant note, as he reminded her of what she had vowed to never think of. Charlie was frozen once more as the memories flooded back, rushing through her mind, too fast, and her breathing tried to follow their speed. Her eyes started to fill as she unconsciously rubbed her hip, and she knew she needed to get away. But first she turned malice and wet eyes on Rome. She stalked over and laid one on him again, so hard she felt things break.

She walked away and never looked back. Never looked back to see Dom standing there, his expression unreadable as everything passed through his mind, as he made decisions, like he always did, and she never looked back to see Dom lay into Rome either. Though she would have liked that.


End file.
